Dragon's Egg

Rating:
Summary: Impressive upside down perspectives
Review: A friend of mine lent me this book and told me it was "hard" Sci Fi. I discovered this is one of those books you find very difficult not to believe the story really happened. Backed by true physics, this story will take you to a place where evolution takes place in hours and society develops in minutes. Great for those who have a rock-solid point of view, since the story gives so many twists to the perspective of society (our society by comparision looks so dull), even the purists will love it. Excellent and intriguing at the end. Strongly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Dragon's Egg
Review: As you'll read a plot synopsis and some specific puffs and pans of the author's writing abilities in the other reviews, I'll stick to what I have always found to be the most intriguing part of the book: The Cheela. They become people. They develop a self awareness, personalities, an intriguing society, ethics, science, and sufficient patience, tolerance, and appreciation of a totally alien race of beings (humans) to make contact in a mutually beneficial manner.

Yeah, there's a bunch of "hard" science in here, but not as much as some of the other reviews make it seem. I disagree with the reviewer who thinks the author pokes some fun at humanity as he tracks the Cheela. Instead, it seems he presents some strong moral lessons along with the Cheela's history, and invites the reader to compare how we (humans) have faced the same challenges. As allegory, this is a superb story.

The writing at the beginning is a bit dry, but don't give up on it. As the plot and narrative style unfold, the pace picks up, and the story blossoms.

This book is best appreciated by the young and impressionable.

I first read it when I fit into that category, and for many years its insights haunted my reality. When I went back to it, still many more years later, I wasn't as bowled over by some of the revelations as I had been the first time through. Partly, this was because I'd explored the author's ideas in greater depth from the perspectives of other disciplines, and partly because there's a tinge of cynicism that creeps in over the years.

For all that, I still rate it as one of my top ten books of all time (and I've read thousands). Admittedly, it didn't make it there because of an elegant prose style. That short coming, however, is more than compensated for by its ability to provoke reflection on so many levels, and in so many disciplines, that one comes to treat the author's visions as touchstones.

A perfect follow-up for this book is Arthur C. Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA. It also presents a first contact story from a totally different, though equally thought-provoking, perspective.

Rating:
Summary: My family's all-time favorite novel(s) of any genre!
Review: Dr. Forward presents amazingly full-blown alternate realities to his readers gift-wrapped as sci-fi novels. Included for your $$ value is the research scientist's world-renowned expertise in the field of gravitational astronomy and radiation. My entire family agrees that Dragon's Egg and its sequel Starquake provide moments of profound enlightenment, immaculately constructed science, and the thrilling possibility of communication between vastly different species. I cannot recommend it too highly. [I wish others would abide by the review rules. Some sneer at the honest reviews of others, assuming a pseudo-intellectual, 'I know better than thou' stance. What purpose is served by printing the negativity of people who are incapable of producing a coherent review, let alone an entire novel that thrills millions?]

Rating:
Summary: More than just science fiction
Review: Dragon's Egg is a great read because it is more than just science fiction. Forward makes some powerful statements (sometimes rather amusing) about humanity. During the development of the cheela (the lifeforms on the surface of the neutron star) he frequently pokes fun at humanity. For example, the development of cheela religion is a well done jab at our society.

Personally I thought the book spent too much time developing the cheela and not enough time getting the reader familiar with the humans hovering above the star. You don't really learn much about the humans until very late in the book. I guess I was hoping to know more about them, their motives, etc. All in all it was a very worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best science fiction books I have ever read
Review: Dragon's Egg, I feel, is a better book thn Starquake, but they are both excellent stories. The narrative device used, especially in Dragon's Egg, adds interest as it leaves the reader to make a very important discovery about the Cheela. In addition, Dragon's Egg gives historians something to chew on as it is not only based on hard science but also historical theory as well. Would such a different society pass through the same developmental stages as human society? Dragons Egg is one of my four all-time favourite books; I re-read it (again) to celebrate World Book Day and it is still an excellent read. There are not many books that can stand re-reading and still maintain the reader's interest. Ideal for people who think they don't like "hard" science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: "BORING"!?!? Oh, please...
Review: Hey, Mr. "[e-mail]", you must be out of your cotton-pickin' gourd! Dr. Forward is (or at least was) a research scientist at Hughes Research Labs in Malibu. He is exceedingly well known for his unique ideas and concepts on the subject of how to carry out expeditions beyond our solar system, especially as regards the necessary means of propulsion. If memory serves, this was Dr. Forward's first published novel, and the first time I read it, I was absolutely enthralled by its detail, and by the remarkable expanse of Dr. Forward's imagination. Yes, the book provides you as up-to-date an account of "...the scientific aspects of neutron stars..." as you're likely to find outside the preeminent scientific journals, but that is a very long way from being its only merit. It also provides the most imaginative view I've ever read concerning the real fundamental nature of _life_; intelligent, self-aware, creative _life_; life which, in this particular story, must evolve (and does so very plausibly) in a physical setting so radically different from our own species' native habitat as to make the very prospect of paying a visit thereto (which Dr. Forward's human characters _do_) so daunting as to itself require the most resourceful and imaginative application possible of the best our current science and engineering has to offer. (The near-future extrapolations Dr. Forward employs fit the continuity of this perfectly.) Perhaps you were disappointed because Dr. Forward does not possess the narrative panache of, say, Robert Heinlein or Isaac Asimov --- SO WHAT???? If you found the story boring, either your own imagination is flaccid, or you didn't read the same book _I_ did! (Sorry for the afterburner treatment, but, really, ladies and gents, if you want to nit-pick something, go log in at "angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin.com". If you get a thrill reading something that is fresh, imaginative, and astoundingly well grounded in _real_ science, read this book!

Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: I first read this back in 1984. It's a great book. It's about a team of scientists who go to a distant star to observe the
local inhabitants. The book begins with a native noticing that
his planet's sun is going to swallow his planet. Then it continues with the crew of the St. George, as they study the
natives who live on the star. They're like amoebas or paramecia. It's not life as we know it. These are life forms, that after all, live on a star. Dr. Forward, who'd worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, on the unmanned mission that dominated the 1980s___Voyager.

Rating:
Summary: interesting science, but um...where's the storytelling?
Review: I read Dragon's Egg years ago, when it first came out, and found the physics imaginative but the characters & plot laughable. A recent revisit did not at all change my first impressions (and the same applies to Forward's other books, like the Rocheworld books).

I suspect that the other enthusiastic reviewers of Forward's works also think that "Physics Review A" articles have great character development, and "American Journal of Physics" is just Da Bomb!

Rating:
Summary: Good Hard Sci-Fi
Review: I read this back in the 80's, after reading a recommendation in a book by Arthur C. Clarke. Altho Forward was not the only scientist to speculate on the possibliity of exotic life on a neutron star (Steven Baxter does a better job of it in his excellent novel, FLUX ), and altho the character development and writing style are at times severely lacking in Dragon's Egg, the author does tell a story worth reading. The technological details will fascinate some, and bore others, but the concept of life existing under such conditions will hold your attention, and the characters do sort of grow on you after awhile. The accelerated time frame of the Cheela is suspect, but it does add an interesting twist to the tale, particularly when their technology starts to bypass that of their human visitors.
This is not in the running for the greatest science-fiction novel ever written. And of this author's works, I personally liked Flight of the Dragonfly better. (Later expanded into Rocheworld, which I haven't read.) Dragon's Egg is , however, quite an interesting yarn taking place in one of the unlikeliest of locales. Read it and enjoy, as well as the sequel, Starquake.

Rating:
Summary: Dr. Forward really puts science into the fiction!
Review: I read this book back in the 1980s, re-read it recently, and felt as if I were rediscovering and old friend. Dr. Forward begins with the discovery of the neutron star on earth, then moves to life on the star itself. We watch the cheela evolve as a species, from ignorant superstition to scientific genius, and wait breathlessly as they and the earthlings encounter each other. Dr. Forward, being a real scientist, lost me a few times with his technical terms, but instead of making me bored or frustrated and left feeling outside, I was just sorry I couldn't speak his language and really appreciate the true depth of the story, which I feel will hold the reader's interest regardless of their level of education. It's a fascinating story of life on another world, how it might evolve, and what might happen when humans find it. A must-read for serious sci-fi fans and amateur astronomers.